Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

1 review

ressicajicks's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

I liked this book overall but the last chapter about the woman’s gambling addiction didn’t sit right with me. I understand the correlation between addiction and habit, but the emphasis on “personal responsibility” towards the end felt like it was missing the forest for the trees. It is very easy to attribute overcoming any addiction to “personal responsibility” and “simply adjusting your habits” but this ignores the sociological factors that tend to play into addictions (not to mention genetic or environmental). I realize this was a book about habits and not addiction specifically, but perhaps then an example other than addiction could have been more appropriate to compare to the man who killed his wife in his sleep. Overall I appreciated the research that went into the book and I learned a lot about how our brains tend to function - let’s see if I can implement it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Suicide, Addiction, and Racism